Clay in Conversation 12: Collaboration

Clay in Conversation 12: Collaboration

This episode of Clay in Conversation is kindly hosted by County Hall Pottery to coincide with the exhibition being held in the gallery ‘Collaborative’, a cross-disciplinary exhibition for London Design Festival, opening13 September and continuing to 9 November .

Venue: County Hall Pottery, Belvedere Rd, London, SE1 7PB

Date: 16 October 2025

Time: 5-7pm

The Clay in Conversation series provide a platform for presentation, dialogue and discovery, bringing together a diverse range of artists with a practice using clay and ceramics.

Each conversation centres on a specific theme - acting as a lens through which the artists present their work in person. The conversations offer the opportunity to dig deeper into the work, exploring it formally, materially and conceptually, from the perspective of the artists themselves.

The presentations are followed by a conversation and for this episode we are thrilled to welcome Ashley Thorpe as chair to facilitate the conversation followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Clay in Conversation is curated by artist Julia Ellen Lancaster @juliaellenlancaster_ceramics supported by the Ceramics Research Centre-UK (CREAM), University of Westminster.

It’s with great pleasure we announce the artists taking part in this episode will be Francesca Anfossi and Ciara Neufeldt.

Francesca Anfossi is the co-founder and director of Rochester Square, a dynamic pottery studio in Camden, dedicated to social-engaging projects and artistic collaborations. Born in Italy, Anfossi lives and works in London. She holds an MFA in painting from the Slade School of Art, 2008. Her works most often takes the form of ceramics, workshops, cooking classes or communal events and offers the participants opportunities to learn new skills and form new social bonds.

Her ceramic work celebrates functionality and exchange, based on some of our most basic activities: cooking, playing and sharing. Her eclectic work takes a collaborative and playful approach to craftmanship. Anfossi will be exhibiting in the upcoming show at County Hall Pottery entitled ‘Collaborative’, opening 13 September for which she has been collaborating with artist Frances Gibson.

Recent exhibitions include The Room, WSJ Gallery, London, 2025; In Good Company, Lamb Gallery and Studio Wright, London, 2025; Subject Platter, Corner 7 Gallery, London, 2024-20255. Other projects include Camden Art Centre editions for Frieze, 2024; participation at NADA with Whitechapel Gallery, Miami, USA, 2024; Ceramic Bread public workshop, MACTE< Termoli, Italy, 2025; MUDA10, ten years of Museo Diffuso Albisola, Italy 2024. Anfossi was also the winner of the Whitegold International Ceramic Prize, St Austell, UK, 2020-2021.

@fraanfossi www.francesaanfossi.com

Ciara Neufeldt is a craftsperson, artist and facilitator. She graduated with an MA Ceramic from Konstfack University, in 2023.

Her practice centres on bringing a moment of joy into everyday life, through participatory ceramic installations. Her interventions are functional, tactile and colourful, with the intention of creating accessibility to art in our daily environments.

Her work as a facilitator is integral to her practice. She is learning and working towards inclusivity and making ceramics more accessible. She uses clay as a catalyst for connection and as a tool to bring people together, with the intention to create space for others to make, play and talk.

She is the 2025 Adobe x V&A Creative Resident for Ceramics. Throughout this year, she has been researching the museum’s quilt collection through the lens of care and community. She investigates processes of collective making and how this framework could be translated into a clay-based practice.

Recent exhibitions include Affordable Art Fair, Galleri Duerr, Stockholm 2024; Process, Dundee Design Festival, September 2024; Formations In Clay Furniture, County Hall Pottery, London Design Festival, September 2024. Publication features include Stirpad, ‘Bookends’ at Dundee Design Festival 2024 is reflective of vibrant tales and journeys, 2024; Wallpaper, 20 Pairs of Bookends Celebrate Contemporary Scottish Design, 2024; Home & Interiors, Welcome to Dundee Design Festival, 2024

@ciara.neufeldt www.ciaraneufeldt.com

Ashley Thorpe won the inaugural Ceramics Art+Perception Writing Prize in 2018 for his essay on the work of sculptural ceramicist Tessa Eastman. He subsequently published Contemporary British Ceramics: Beneath the Surface (2021) and Contemporary British Studio Pottery: Forms of Expression (2023) with The Crowood Press. He was commissioned to write Julian Stair: Memory, Material, Ceramics, which was published by Yale University Press in 2024. He is a passionate collector of ceramics, has written numerous gallery essays, and in 2024 organised a conference on "The Performing Object; Ceramics and/as Performance". He teaches Japanese and Chinese Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he gained his PhD in 2004.

@pjwe111

Julia Ellen Lancaster is an artist working out of London and Kent, UK. Graduating from the Royal College of Art she spent time in Tokyo, researching and exhibiting at Youkobo Arts Centre, Tokyo. Lancaster was subsequently selected for the Leach 100 Residency, St Ives, UK in 2020 as part of the Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada pottery centenary celebrations. In 2021 she was awarded a further residency with Leach Pottery, being one of the first artists to take up residence at the historically significant Anchor studio, the original home of the Newlyn Art School. More recently Lancaster was awarded the first international Ceramics Residency at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Ceramics school, 2024, culminating in a sell-out show of new work. Lancaster teaches ceramics and sculpture in professional studios and institutions and is a selected member of the Royal Society of Sculptors.

@juliaellenlancaster_ceramics www.juliaellenlancaster.com

This is an ‘in person’ event to be held at venue:

County Hall Pottery, Belvedere Rd, London, SE1 7PB

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All welcome. Places are limited so please book early.